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Fire Emblem Community Thread | Together We Ride

Draxal

Member
I guess I was naive. I was hoping the reason wasn't something that freakin' stupid.

Ayup, I'm really tired of all the translation threads as people just ramp it up way too much. I think it was the first time she was exposed to the all dubs must die crowd though.

As an aside Reddit has some calculation on Fates hit rate. Won't link directly due to scans.
 
I need help. I've now finished Birthright and Conquest, and I need a nice long break of playing something else before starting Revelations. What should I play?
 
Nice long break?

Play Xenoblade Chronicles X :p

Too late! Already finished it.

What haven't you played yet?

Alright, if you want a list of my options:
Actially finish Zone of the Enders 2, Valkyria Chronicles again, or Bahamut Lagoon.

Start playing Codename STEAM, Citizens of Earth, Guacamelee, Transistor, Stealth Inc 2, or Invisible Inc.

Purchase Layton 6, Etrian Odyssey U2, or Pandora's Tower.
 

spiritfox

Member
Too late! Already finished it.



Alright, if you want a list of my options:
Actially finish Zone of the Enders 2, Valkyria Chronicles again, or Bahamut Lagoon.

Start playing Codename STEAM, Citizens of Earth, Guacamelee, Transistor, Stealth Inc 2, or Invisible Inc.

Purchase Layton 6, Etrian Odyssey U2, or Pandora's Tower.

A little bias, but EO2U.
 
Eh...I guess I'll put my review here as well


After playing Conquest for a fair amount and thinking about it, it's a solid 7/10 game for me.

Although I'm one to prefer gameplay to story, there were times where I felt I shouldn't be playing certain chapter because of the stupidity of the characters. They were also times were it felt like filler and should've been a side-quests type chapter (of course paralouges ruin that).

Strangely enough I never played past Paralouge 2, and still felt I played too much with all the content, which should be a plus, but I felt burn out right away. Conquest times felt that it took to long to do chapters. Which I don't mind, but it became too frequent in my opinion. Of course, I have played FE4 but the story continuing to go on in 4 made it more bearable to handle, While Fates felt like a chore. In fact I actually prefer Awakenings map design and believe they would be more appreciate led if they had better objectives to go along with.

Music is great. Better then Most FE game, even if it doesn't have those 10/10 songs. Although I really did not like the final chapter having Azura singing. It just felt weird and out of place, but this is just a nitpick on my part.

Azura was a really stupid character in Conquest. That ending annoyed the hell out of me, but I've yet to play the true story of the game so this could easily change.

Speaking of characters, I'm annoyed of how easy and effortlessly it is to recruit characters. It used to be part of the challenge, but now Corrin can persuade anyone or they just come in already in your team. However, because of the story this seems understandable. Although Jakob and Flora just coming in and you staying silent was stupid. Support conversations were great in Conquest in my opinion, but platonic relationships would be nice.

All in all, the story is actually important to me in Fire Emblem games apparently and this game was the first where I felt disappointed by it and actually cause me to not want to do replays. I'm not asking for a Academy Award story, just entertaining or at least enjoyable. This game was neither for me. I find the Kingdom hearts stories stupid as hell once I try to think about them, but I'm still enjoying them and entertain by them.

Just For the love of God, please start using a narrator again, both 3DS games had too much exposition. Too many character talking to themselves, but I'll be honest I don't remember if the other games had the same problem and I'm sure characters did do some exposition. But this would make the story flow better without keeping reminding me about what I just been told and seen.

So yeah 7/10.
 
So who's that unit that you were surprised to find out was generally liked or disliked?

It was a shocker to look online and see that Hayato is one of the least liked units in Birthright when he's been an important staple of my team (especially when I got my hands on a Horse Spirit). I suppose he has some Est-y qualities, but I can forgive that when you come in 25% of the way into the game, and he has that personal skill for +3 on higher level enemies which helped to iron that out. Maybe my Hayato got some important levelups early on as well. I didn't even really do much grinding in Birthright.

EDIT: I just realized that I made this post in the Community topic. Well, let's extend that to all the games then.
 

Xenoflare

Member
So who's that unit that you were surprised to find out was generally liked or disliked?

It was a shocker to look online and see that Hayato is one of the least liked units in Birthright when he's been an important staple of my team (especially when I got my hands on a Horse Spirit). I suppose he has some Est-y qualities, but I can forgive that when you come in 25% of the way into the game, and he has that personal skill for +3 on higher level enemies which helped to iron that out. Maybe my Hayato got some important levelups early on as well. I didn't even really do much grinding in Birthright.

Really? Hayato was panned the moment he came out because of his similarities to Ricken. Everywhere I see it's how bad Hayato is since as far as I could remember. Although Ricken was pretty okay in my awakening run, ended up being one of the MVPs because I made him a dark knight that made him into a mag tank. Which, funnily enough, Oni Cheiftain is the class where Hayato shines too (a bulky mage)
 

Dantero

Member
This has probably been asked before or I'm missing something obvious but what do I actually get if I buy fates in the eshop?
I thought you have to buy each route seperately but in the EU store at least there's only a pre order for fates. No birthrite/conquest/revelations.
 
Really? Hayato was panned the moment he came out because of his similarities to Ricken. Everywhere I see it's how bad Hayato is since as far as I could remember. Although Ricken was pretty okay in my awakening run, ended up being one of the MVPs because I made him a dark knight that made him into a mag tank. Which, funnily enough, Oni Cheiftain is the class where Hayato shines too (a bulky mage)
It does help that I actually haven't played Awakening yet so I had no exposure to Ricken.
I did consider making Hayato into bulky hybrid class because he's surprisingly good at taking hits. But ultimately I made him into an Onmyoji because I really wanted another Staff User at the time.

This has probably been asked before or I'm missing something obvious but what do I actually get if I buy fates in the eshop?
I thought you have to buy each route seperately but in the EU store at least there's only a pre order for fates. No birthrite/conquest/revelations.
I think I heard that in Japan, if you bought the game on the eShop, you would be locked with your version of Birthright/Conquest when you made the choice in the story.
 

NeonZ

Member
This has probably been asked before or I'm missing something obvious but what do I actually get if I buy fates in the eshop?
I thought you have to buy each route seperately but in the EU store at least there's only a pre order for fates. No birthrite/conquest/revelations.

In the Japanese eshop release, you bought just a neutral game "Fire Emblem Fates" (Well, Fire Emblem IF, actually) and then when you make the route choice in chapter 6, it'd download the remaining data and lock you into Conquest, Birthright or Revelations, leaving the others for DLC.

In the American release, you buy Fates Conquest or Fates Birthright from the store and then afterwards can buy other routes as DLC. There's no neutral Fates with route choice and lock. It sounds like the European release might be following the Japanese format.
 

Dantero

Member
Good to know. Thanks, you two. Still not too sure if I want to pay this much for what feels like one third of a game, though.
From what I remember this game fixed the worst thing about Awakening, which was reinforcements moving the turn they spawn, right?
 
So who's that unit that you were surprised to find out was generally liked or disliked?

It was a shocker to look online and see that Hayato is one of the least liked units in Birthright when he's been an important staple of my team (especially when I got my hands on a Horse Spirit). I suppose he has some Est-y qualities, but I can forgive that when you come in 25% of the way into the game, and he has that personal skill for +3 on higher level enemies which helped to iron that out. Maybe my Hayato got some important levelups early on as well. I didn't even really do much grinding in Birthright.

EDIT: I just realized that I made this post in the Community topic. Well, let's extend that to all the games then.

Hayato in Birthright is basically Mozu with a better payoff...so still not really worth it even though it's not difficult to catch him up cause it's Birthright.
 

Renewed

Member
Gonna get started on CQ22, Sorry Aveyn. Yesterday was terrible so seeing as we're mentioning RNGesus, I'll write something.

RNGesus, who art in Fire Emblem,
Hallowed be Thy Name;
Thy rolls come,
Their cruelty be done,
with deaths assured for everyone.
Give us this day our daily luck,
and forgive us our bountiful growths,
as we forgive those who stand against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from resets. Amen.
 
I'm playing FE4 and lost a character near the end of a long chapter, then remembered this game lets you save at the beginning of your turn.

I'm considering leaving Briggid dead, she'll have company soon anyways
 
I'm playing FE4 and lost a character near the end of a long chapter, then remembered this game lets you save at the beginning of your turn.

I'm considering leaving Briggid dead, she'll have company soon anyways
It's kind of ironic that Briggid of all people is the one that doesn't end up suriving
 
Thinking about doing another Awakening run, but not sure if I want to git gud and see if I can actually clear chapter 2 Lunatic or just have a nice chill Hard run where I can dick around however I want to.
 

L95

Member
So, I got bored and was reading some FE8 supports:
Vanessa: Lute, did you know this? The wings of a thousand pegasi are an incredibly potent aphrodisiac.
Lute: I…I didn’t know that… OK, now I really need Titania’s help. Wait! Wait! I was just kidding! Hush, Titania! Hush! I was joking!
(Titania is Vanessa's pegasus)

Lute: Er… Um… A-according to “A Young Girl’s Primer to Nazonian Magic,” that most ancient tome long sought by, er, the terrible Demon King himself… it’s not uncommon for a party to assign feelings of…er, love to the reanimated hordes they confront on the battlefield, and considering my incredible brain and the remarkable skills I–
Lute says interesting things when flustered.

Yet they removed Dozla and Garcia drinking booze through their C to A supports
 
Do the Lunatic run just to say you did beat it on Lunatic.
Just finished the prologue, which took about 100 less tries than the first time I tried to do this. 2 levels for Robin which amounted to +2 HP, +1 everything else, plus a level for Fred and Lissa. Is that good for that chapter?
 

PK Gaming

Member
Just finished the prologue, which took about 100 less tries than the first time I tried to do this. 2 levels for Robin which amounted to +2 HP, +1 everything else, plus a level for Fred and Lissa. Is that good for that chapter?

Definitely

The goal is to make Robin as OP asap, so keep pumping EXP into him/her

Once you're a Sorcerer w/ Nosferatu you're basically set
 
Random thought of the day: imagine if there was a boss with a silver weapon and an ability like Contrary in Pokemon; in other words every time the boss enters combat he/she gains +2 strength/skill, and you better not attempt debuffs.
 

Renewed

Member
They probably could have gone that route with skills unique to enemies (and picked up for the player via skill scrolls).

I don't suppose anyone's Awakening artbook was updated to release in mid September?
 

PK Gaming

Member
Finally got around to replaying Fire Emblem 8 and...

1) The game's balance is considerably better without Seth.

BDNTeUT.jpg

I'm just going to come out and say it. Seth was a mistake. Presumably the intention was to make the game more accessible to newcomers, but his implementation in FE8 is unforgivable. Seth isn't even just an overpowered unit in FE8; he's downright broken. This man can be used to solve anything; throw him at any unit or situation and he'll come out on top. He requires very little thought or planning on the player's part, and it's actually more efficient to lowman the entire game with him. This is especially problematic because FE8 is actually pretty interesting without him. Like, you're forced to make use out of more units instead of relying on Seth to just stomp everything. I could see how that could make certain players uncomfortable (since some of of the earlier chapters are tricky without him) but Seth prevents the player from truly experiencing loss, and that's unforgivable. "Losing" a map isn't inherently bad, and this is why characters the OP jeigans like FE9!Titania, Seth and Marcus are bad units, since they're shortcuts. (This is also the reason why Conquest Lunatic is goddamn amazing. It's uncompromising challenge makes to player lose a lot, and you can't just expect Camilla or Xander to solve everything for you)

In the end, I wouldn't say that FE8 is particularly challenging even without Seth, but it's definitely a lot more fun, and clearing maps without him is way more rewarding without him.


2) The narrative and main characters are actually pretty good.


When I first played FE8, I hated the politics and thought Eirika was a lame because she wasn't as "cool" as other FE lords.That isn't the case however. The plot set up is legitimately intriguing; a world that's only known peace for centuries is suddenly plunged into war, and it's scary. Characters on both sides react accordingly to this, and the game does a good job of showing both sides to this. I feel like the game does a better job of conveying "war is bad" than Fates through it's entire cast, rather than just having the main character repeat it ad infinitum.

3) Eirika is a good Lord.


The first thing I noticed on my Sethless run is that Eirika is actually quite good here. You're forced to rely her early on and she ends up picking up a considerable amount of experience, turning into "juggernaut" unit with immense utility as a dodge tank/boss killer. Fortunately she lacks 1-2 range and is actually mortal so she doesn't end up being a delete button like Seth, but she still kicks an immense amount of ass (alongside with Franz who eventually becomes Seth 2.0)


As a character, she's pretty great too. I used to think she was weaker than Ephraim in all aspects, but not wanting to fight doesn't make you a pushover. Opting for diplomacy over violence doesn't make you weak, and her decision to fight in spite of the above is what makes her truly compelling. She displays a ton of willpower too, and will fight a bitch despite receiving very little combat training. Sure, she has her moments of naivety, but she carries herself in a way that clearly makes her true leader of her route and arguably the main, main protagonist of FE8. Ephraim is similarly good, but for different rasons. I didn't realize this before, Ephraim's obsession with fighting, glory and Conquest is portrayed in a negative light, and the part were he
cries over Lyon
is a powerful and cathartic moment in the story. Eirika and Ephraim serve as a good foils to each other, and their growth mostly has to do with becoming more like the other sibling.

4) Lute sucks, and so do the majority of the bit characters.


Didn't expect criticism, didja? This is something the new games get right, since even if the majority of the cast are 1 dimensional cardboard cutouts, at least they're interesting[ 1 dimensional cardboard cutouts. Lute is a highly arrogant and a bit of an oddball, but her dry dialogue and bland sprite don't match her personality which creates a massive dissonance. Neimi suffers from a similar problem and is straight up trash as, and most of these characters have the same exact set up. They (had their village thrashed or are wanted) by (insert bandits or monsters) and (Eirika's group) needs to save them. After that, they disappear from the narrative and are effectively never seen again, save for supports which are mostly dull/boring. A few of the side characters are good, like Ephraim's retainers, but for the most part they're a legitimate low points in the game for me. Oh and a good majority of them are bad units, but I digress.

5) Varied antagonists


FE8 antagonists aren't strictly black and white. There's a nuance to them that you don't see in the newer games. Some of them are honor bound to the Emperor, but don't strictly believe in their cause like Selena. Some of them are animals like Valter, and others like Glen and his brother even consider defecting. Even that bastard Caellach is disguste by Valter's acitons. It's that sort of variance that makes these characters so much more interesting than just obstacles that need to taken down. Both of the main antagonists are pretty good as well.
Lyon's a tragic and compelling figure, and his dad is basically Garon done right.
 

L95

Member
Yeah. FE8's main villain group is one of my favorites. You've got so many sub-factions and goals there.

(But dude, Lute's 70%(Japan) 65%(International) mag growth has to make up for something :p)
 

CazTGG

Member
lots of text about FE8

Already did my own review a while back (spoilers: I liked it, though not as much as Rekka no Ken or Path of Radiance) so I thought i'd give some additional comments since i'm replaying it to get footage for my Revelation review:

1) This might be anecdotal but since I use Seth fairly often when playing Sacred Stones, when it comes to mounted units, he always ends up outclassed by Forde or Franz. Yes, his base stats are good, but to say he's broken or damages the difficulty of the entire game is a bit of an exaggeration, especially when this game includes one of the most potent opportunities for arena abuse in a very early chapter which *can* break the game's difficulty. All in all, Sacred Stones was the easiest game in the series prior to Awakening, even without grinding. The player is given so many tools, be it the classes and skills or legendary weapons, that the enemy never gets to use like the thief's promoted classes (unless you count Rennac but I don't really count recruitable enemies as "enemy" enemy units) or the summoner, the latter of which would have been really neat to see them use, as would be a greater use of the new classes. It really gives them a huge advantage. Side-note: The summoner's audio for using magic is noticeably more quiet than the druid. Weird.

2) Much like Fates, Sacred Stones starts out with a promising premise that, in the case of Sacred Stones, starts to lose steam after the twins unite. The two exclusive paths have their moments (Joshua's backstory for Eirika's along with the additional lore it adds, Duessel's almost suicidal realization that everything he's fought for is now worthless only for Ephraim to tell him to live like a traitor as that would be the best way to serve his country in a clever moment that shows their leadership skills and charisma
unlike that similar scene with Gunter and Corrin where the "live as a traitor" moment doesn't work due to them not establishing their relationship or a motive beyond vaguely hinting about Gunter's past and his family's fridging
), as do several of the boss conversations over the entire game (Valter vs. anyone with unique dialogue between him), but the overall plot feels like it's trying to recapture the lightning a bottle that was Rekka no Ken's plot (i.e. our hero being at their lowest point as a result of losing a close friend to a malevolent force only to swear they'll keep on fighting after some encouraging words from another friend, the rescuing of a family member after the recent loss of their parents, Myrrh and Ephraim being a touch similar to Eliwood and Ninian's bittersweet relationship etc.) with little success. The other main problem is that the translation is very dry, making characters sound somewhat unnatural compared to Rekka no Ken or Path of Radiance.

3) Eirika tends to be a basically a slightly faster, slightly weaker (in terms of strength) Lyn. It's a good thing she gets a second rapier on her path to help her take out knights and cavaliers along with early additional critical hits. Her naivety might annoy some people, but her arc i.e. knowing when to stand your ground and say "enough", is far more satisfying than Ephraim's lack of one.

4) Character preference aside (I actually like how Lute's social skills reflect her preference to reading books rather engaging people and her support with Ross is gold), most Fire Emblem games tend to this with their minor characters: Introduce a character in a chapter while giving the majority of the dialogue to the main character, their close friend and/or sibling(s) along with their mentor/guard figure with one or two characters getting more attention for a select chapter or two until the final chapter where they get a single line to remind you it's a team effort. Fates did improve upon this slightly by giving the entire family for Birthright, Conquest and Revelation, but the majority of the royal family's dialogue for all three paths is exposition and failed to develop their characters outside of supports. Not saying it's a trope i'm particularly fond of, but it is a trope.

5) The villains in this game are generally great, especially
Lyon, who has a lot of layers to go through that i'm planning on discussing them in further detail after I finish my Revelation review/in the review itself to point out the problem with the multiple pointless deaths in Fates
and Duessel who
realizes that this war makes no sense and tries to talk to Ephraim about it before Selena orders him dead for treason before his aforementioned switching of sides
. Even Valter's sadistic, animalistic actions are fascinating to behold, even if the explanation behind them is hidden in a support between Cormag and Duessel, with said support's revelation being somewhat disappointing. The only one who falls a bit short is Riev, who fits into the "scheming evil old man" trope the series loves to use a bit snugly.
 

PK Gaming

Member
Re: Point 1

I disagree, 100%. While the other cavs can get to Seth's level, Seth trivializes the game from the beginning, and continues to do so until the game ends. There is never a point where he drops off since his growths are good and he gains enough EXP from boss kills. It doesn't matter if he gets eventually beaten by Franz or Forde (which I heavily disagree is even possible with the later). He's an immortal, 8 move killing machine with, 1-2 range, ridiculous bases backed by solid growths. His contributions for the entire game are unmatched by any character, ever. Arena abuse isn't even a good argument in this case because it's inherently broken! It amounts to grinding, which of course would destroy the game's balance. I've already noted that FE:8 is an easy game with or without Seth, but Seth straight up breaks the game on a fundamental level, in the same way that grinding breaks FE8.

Re: Point 2

I disagree here as well. FE7 is a largely disjointed mess with a bunch of silly plot points that don't really lead anywhere. The villain motivations are weak, and its main protagonist Eliwood is incredibly bland (though Hector is one of the most likeable leads in the franchise, and Lyn is pretty cool despite completely loses plot relevance after a certain point). FE8 has the stronger set up, superior protagonists, villains with clear motivations
Lyon and the emperor were tragic antagonists with good intentions. The emperor's "reasoning" for being 100% evil is pretty good as well.
and FE8 handles the "demon/gods" fucking with humanity trope better than most of the games in the series. I find myself caring about most of the cast in the game, whereas I only really gave a shit about the main leads in FE7.

Re: Point 3

Eirika actually has better bases than Lyn and will on average will have the sameish str/skill/speed stats as Lyn, but with much better defense. The main thing to note is that Eirika (especially on a seth-less run) will have access to resources that will boost her stats even further, making her more valuable than Lyn. Also worth noting that she promotes earlier (with a horse!) and easily deals with the axepocalypse that is FE8's early game. And Ephraim has character development! His thing is about being a reckless glory hound, but eventually "manning" up by realizing that there's glory in responsibility as future king instead of just being a badass fighter. Even Seth calls him out on his behavior, and as I mentioned earlier,
the moment where he cries for Lyon is especially poignant.

Re: Point 4

Yeah I suppose that most of them are like that, haha. It's just great how in the later games the characters feel less transient because of supports and story prominence. Even if the prominence is momentary, that still makes them infinitely more memorable than your dime a dozen FE. Like everyone's gonna remember Oboro and her squad in Conquest because how fierce she is, but who the fuck even remembers Neimi?

Re: Point 5

Ye
 
I Never use Seth in FE 8.
I don't like Paladins and the game is so easy, I just use characters I actually like.

My one problem is the lack of challange, I think this game gives some of the best characters right away, Ross (at least in my file, he never loses) and Joshua (a few levels and dodges everything).

I did enjoy the story and not dragging itself like other games, it moved fairly fast. Some chapters were fun, but I wished that when you split paths, you could've played them as sidequests with hard challenges considering its a lord and two other characters.

The twins were alright, boring at times, but way better written then Fates main characters. Them becoming Paladin type classes bug the hell out of me tho.

Orson is one messed up dude, actually most were villians were pretty messed up They all looked like they never slept in their lives
 

Xbro

Member
Anyone else having a problem of Fates' chapters feeling pointless?

I feel like there's no real reason I'm fighting these enemies in most of these chapters, and it really makes a lot of them super unmemorable. To be fair though I thought Awakening had the same problem.
 
Anyone else having a problem of Fates' chapters feeling pointless?

I feel like there's no real reason I'm fighting these enemies in most of these chapters, and it really makes a lot of them super unmemorable. To be fair though I thought Awakening had the same problem.
Reason why Conquest was only 7/10 for me and no feelings for replaying it.
Twice beaten and I'm finish, I don't even want to play Birthright or Revelations.

I've replay Awakening much more with its boring gameplay, but I actually care for the characters and kinda for its story.

Fates made me realize that Fire Emblem is the only series where I truly cared for story in a game.
 
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